


a wonderful part of the mess that we made

by acetamide



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: M/M, mid-movie AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-22
Updated: 2014-06-22
Packaged: 2018-02-05 18:27:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1828039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acetamide/pseuds/acetamide
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Erik doesn't make such poor life choices.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a wonderful part of the mess that we made

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a prompt at [X-Men Kink](http://xmen-firstkink.livejournal.com/11912.html?thread=22801032#t22801032).

“We’ve come for you. Erik and I, together.”

Raven glances up at Erik from the marble-topped table where she lies, her muscles convulsing in rippling bright blue spasms and a strange sort of relief in her eyes. Charles’ hands are cradling her head and he leans in close to whisper to her.

“I made you a promise, a long time ago, that I would protect you and I know that I haven’t kept it, but I… I’m going to keep you safe, I’m going to keep you out of their hands.”

The gun that Raven dropped is on the table in front of him, just a few feet away, completely forgotten. It’s her DNA that they need for the Sentinels, but he can prevent that from happening by simply removing her from the equation. They might get away this time but Trask and his men will just keep coming, keeping hunting them and killing them and now that they know about Raven they will make a target out of her and eventually, they will find her – but he can stop that, he can save all of mutantkind before the hunt begins and all it would take is one bullet.

“Erik?”

His gaze snaps back to Charles, who’s looking at him expectantly. Then Charles follows where his gaze had been and sees the gun; Erik can see him make the link and can see him tense up, ready to put himself in between Erik and Raven in the full knowledge that he can’t stop a bending bullet – but he only get halfway to standing.

“Let’s go,” Erik says, trying to inject some lightness into his voice, and watches as Charles helps a weakened Raven to her feet. There’s a pause, and then a horrified voice comes from behind him.

“Shit man, you were right, this is really bad acid.”

 

**

 

“You know that he’s going to be hunting her, now that he knows her power?” Charles says quietly as the jet levels out above France, and Erik grimaces. Raven has been silent for the journey so far, and is sitting by herself at the back of the plane – Hank had offered her the co-pilot seat but she had just shaken her head and curled up on the seat furthest away from everyone else. 

“She poses a risk to us all now.”

“Yes, I noticed you noticing that,” Charles snaps as he slams his bishop down on the board. “And for the record, I wasn’t impressed.”

“And yet you’ll also notice that she is safely on board this jet and heading back to Salem with us.”

Charles glares at him over his glass of scotch, but it only lasts for a few seconds before he huffs loudly and drops his gaze.

“Raven might be his priority now but that doesn’t mean that he’ll just ignore the rest of us. We might have averted the future that Logan came from for now, but that’s no guarantee that it won’t still happen if his Sentinel program is allowed to progress.”

“I rather think that our disoriented friend in the corner is proof that the future has been changed.”

Charles slants a look at where Logan is sat halfway down the plane with his head against the wall and his eyes shut, breathing heavily, and almost smiles.

“Yes, I do believe you’re right. That doesn’t stop Trask from being a threat – we still need to deal with him, but my previous rule stands: no killing.”

“I already gave you my word; have I disappointed you yet?” Charles fixes him with a dark look and he immediately regrets his choice of words, and sighs. “I meant since you broke into the headquarters of the Department of Defence and rescued me from their deepest dungeon.”

“Well you did nearly crash the plane on the way over.”

“What can I say, emotions get the better of me.”

The air in the cabin suddenly feels too close, hot and running across the backs of his fingers and the tops of his ears. Charles meets his gaze and holds it with an intensity that Erik hasn’t experienced in such a long time and he finds himself leaning in, desperate to hold onto the feeling.

Charles looks down at the table and sees that their hands are just millimetres apart on the wooden surface – and he pulls his own away, leaning back in his chair as he clears his throat and runs a hand through his hair.

“It’s your move, Erik,” he grunts and takes a gulp of his scotch, and then stares resolutely out of the window as they cruise over the Atlantic. Erik blinks slowly, feeling like he’s waking up after a vivid dream, and looks down at the board. There’s a move that he could make that would pretty much guarantee him a checkmate in six turns, but he doesn’t take it.

 

**

 

Raven sits in the back of the car with Hank for the drive back to the mansion, and Erik can hear them holding a whispered conversation whilst Logan sits quietly dumbfounded beside them. Charles had offered to drive them home but after a hushed and furious argument with Hank at the airport, he had sullenly thrown himself into the passenger’s seat and slammed the door with considerably more force than necessary, telling Erik brusquely that he would be playing chauffeur.

Erik can’t quite believe the state of the mansion as they crawl up the drive but considering the state that Charles appears to be in, he can’t say that he’s surprised by the level of neglect that they property is suffering from. The garden is overgrown and the windows thick with dust and dirt, and a quick glance inside a few windows as they walk from the car to the port-cochère confirms his initial suspicion that the inside of the house is even worse.

They’re barely through the front door when Charles collapses onto the floor with a pained grunt and a hand pressed to the base of his spine, and both Raven and Erik are immediately at his side.

“Charles?” Raven asks, her worry clear as her brother starts stuttering about the voices, his legs spasming in front of him as they haul him onto a nearby bench. “Charles, what’s going on?”

“My legs, I can’t… the voices, they’re coming back, oh _god they’re coming back_ …”

“I don’t…”

“He was taking a serum that gave him back use of his legs,” Erik explains quietly as Charles presses his hands to his ears and squeezes his eyes shut. “Hank prepared it for him, that’s what he’s just run off to get. But with the use of his legs, he lost his powers. It’s been too long since his last shot.”

Raven looks at him with a mixture of horror and utter sadness, and then turns her gaze to Charles – who appears to be getting worse, and it’s no longer full sentences that are flooding through his mind but random words, snippets of conversations and thoughts from a hundred thousand other people.

“Charles, you need to focus,” Erik says firmly, and crouches down between Charles’ failing legs as Raven sits on the bench beside him. “Come on, pull yourself together.”

“He’s not responding!” Raven says desperately, and Erik grimaces, because she’s right – Charles’ head has fallen back against the mahogany and his hands are shaking. His eyes are open but glazed, staring up at the ceiling, with his mind so overwhelmed by everyone else within a few hundred miles that he’s not even aware of his own body anymore.

There’s nothing for him, except the voices in his head. 

_I know this is hard but you have to focus_ , Erik thinks desperately, making himself the loudest voice in Charles’ head, and fists his hand in Charles’ hair even as his eyes roll back into his head. _Just concentrate on me, concentrate on my voice and my mind alone, and don’t listen to anybody else. You used to be able to do it and I promise that you can do it again, just start by focusing on me and tuning out the rest._

At first Erik thinks that he’s not gotten through and Charles has been knocked unconscious by his own powers – but then his eyes roll back down and he gasps, and Erik feels a sharp pain in his head as Charles latches on a little too hard and holds on tightly.

_Perfect, just stay with me until it doesn’t hurt anymore_ , he encourages him, and he’s vaguely aware of Raven murmuring beside them, but he blocks her out for now. _Just focus on me, listen to me and stay in control. God, to know that you can actually hear me when I’m trying to talk to you… I spent so long in that prison talking to you, knowing that you wouldn’t respond to me even if you could hear me. But you couldn’t, because you’d sacrificed it for the use of your legs. I can’t even begin to imagine losing my powers when they’re such an enormous part of me._

He’s suddenly very aware of a needle coming from behind him, and he doesn’t think – he just gestured to his left and the syringe flies from Hank’s hand, embedding itself in the wall beside the stairs. Charles’ hands are gripping his shoulders steadfastly and he’s staring straight into his eyes, breathing heavily and sweating. For every word that he says, Charles’ focus tightens and the pain in Erik’s head grows sharper.

_Your powers are as much a part of you as your skin and for most of your life you’ve embraced them but because you’ve suppressed them for so long, you’re not in control any more. They’re controlling you, and you need remember how to command them again. This is the first thing that you taught the children, so teach it to yourself. We’re never going to be able to stop Trask without you – we need you, with your powers, or the dark future will happen again._

Charles closes his eyes slowly and lets out a long breath, and the steadily increasing pain behind Erik’s eyes suddenly disappears as Charles breaks the connection. He leans his head forward and presses it to Erik’s, and his grip on Erik’s shoulders loosens.

“I’m okay,” he says shakily. “I’ll be okay.”

Erik gives his hair a gentle tug and touches his fingers to Charles’ cheek, and stands up to face Hank.

“You can keep that serum to yourself from now on; Charles won’t be needing it anymore.”

“But –”

“Erik’s right,” Charles says slowly, tilting his head back against the wall again. “I need to stop hiding from my powers, it’s not going to solve anything except my legs, and they’re not the most important thing in the world. Right now, we have to focus on stopping Trask’s Sentinels from being activated.”

“I think I can help with that,” Raven speaks up from Charles’ side. “I grabbed the Sentinel blueprints while you guys were trying to talk Logan down, and I’ve already got a bunch of stuff from Trask’s office. There must be something in there that we can use.”

“That’s fantastic Raven, excellent,” Charles smiles, and for the first time that Erik can remember seeing, Raven smiles back. “Now, Hank, if you’d be so kind as to retrieve Logan from wherever he’s wandered off to and Erik, if you could retrieve my chair from my bedroom – I believe we have plans to make.”

 

**


End file.
